USB 2.0 for recording HD-PVR streams

[Dargason]

Yesterday I purchased a 3TB external hard disk to use for media storage. It's a USB 3.0 drive, but my PC only has USB 2.0.

I recorded a movie on it last night (using my HD-PVR) and I noticed it has some places where the audio is out of sync. Could this be an issue with the disk? I also updated the HDPVR driver yesterday, so I'm not sure which is the reason.

In general, is USB2.0 fast enough? What if I am recording to and playing back from the same drive?

[Dargason]

Well, I guess I've answered my own question. I tried playing back a file while it was recording and I got noticeable stuttering in the playback.

[Dargason]

I might have to do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvMNnF1gy-4

[phelme]

Originally Posted by Dargason

Yesterday I purchased a 3TB external hard disk to use for media storage. It's a USB 3.0 drive, but my PC only has USB 2.0.

I recorded a movie on it last night (using my HD-PVR) and I noticed it has some places where the audio is out of sync. Could this be an issue with the disk? I also updated the HDPVR driver yesterday, so I'm not sure which is the reason.

In general, is USB2.0 fast enough? What if I am recording to and playing back from the same drive?

Yes, USB 2.0 is fast enough. Many of us here are reading/writing simultaneously to external USB drives. What block size did you use to format the disk? You should be using 64K.

The other thing to check is make sure the problem isn't actually the playback and not in the recording itself. Try playback on another device if possible or through another player like VLC.

[Dargason]

Well, I installed a pci-to-USB3.0 adapter card and did the test over again. The stuttering problem is gone.

The disk came preformated and I didn't reformat, so it's probably 4k size or whatever the default is. I'll reformat it before it gets too filled up.

Would the HDPVR benefit from being plugged into USB 3.0?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Dargason

Would the HDPVR benefit from being plugged into USB 3.0?

Seeing that the USB interface on the HD-PVR is 2.0 I don't see any benefit.

Gerry